Hello Pool Noodle!

It all started with a birthday idea for my son's Spartan Race themed obstacle party and a FamilyFun magazine idea....the pool noodle: not just for the pool!! We made an obstacle course for his party based on this idea from FamilyFun:

Pretty ingenious, right? We had a great obstacle course birthday party. After the party, we were taking down all the obstacles and I was left with a bunch of hoops and dowels when a light bulb went on in my head: these are great for my students!!! Once the light bulb went on, my mind lit up with ideas on how to use these pool noodles: perfect for defined work spaces on the go (put the work items inside the circle or do activities that require you to put inside the circle), small enough to teach concept development for early childhood (on/off, in/out, up/down), plus they are a fun vision modification for outdoor games like hopscotch or any other throw into a hoop game and of course a giant "horse shoe type" game (I'll post that picture). I've even seen some clever moms cut noodles and slide them on to PVC pipe and construct a bath seat for an older child (man do I wish I would have taken a picture of that cool idea---if you have seen one and can snap it, please do and send it to me!!). These noodle beauties can get wet, stepped on and a kid can tightly grip it and they take the hit! Plus if you get quality ones, when a little one pulls hard on it or even tries to mouth it, little pieces won't break off. 

All you need is duct tape and dowels from Lowe's/Home Depot and viola! You are in business!! A word on pool noodle selection: I advise buying from Walmart or Target and getting quality ones. They are more pliable and bigger when they are made into rings. I bought a few from Dollar Tree and they were just okay. We also found them at CVS that were good but I am sure they are everywhere and since summer is just around the corner I thought now would be the perfect time to blog about it. 

Now I am not a handy person. Crafty, yes but assembling things, no. So I tell you that these pool noodle rings (or Fruit Loops as I like to call them) are super easy and even I can do it (which means you can do it too). I love the richness of the colors and how well they stand out. The yellow one was purchased at Dollar Tree and you can see that it is smaller than the other ones purchased at CVS. 

Notice the candy cane striped pool noodle? I did that because I was worried that the kids couldn't see it standing up in the sunlight. We stuck this one standing up with a dowel at the bottom into the ground. The kids tossed rings and tried to get them on the noodle. Fun game for everyone but secretly a vision modification for our kids.  I haven't even scratched the surface of how many cool things you can do for our kids (preschool through school age including kids who are MIVI/DB and ASD/VI) so I decided to Google some images for other ideas of pool noodle fun:

Link to these ideas: http://trainupachildlearnaswego.blogspot.com/2012/05/pool-noodle-backyard-obstacle-course.html 

This is also from that FF article. These are called wickets (all you need are dowels!).

Then I found a great link on Pinterest with a ton of ideas (almost all are doable activities for our kids too!): https://pinterest.com/betterendings/fun-with-kids-noodle-dogs/. And of course I blogged about this idea when I showed off my colleague Yvonne's fabulous preschool toy modifications (but here's another pic from Google images):

Thank you pool noodle. You are just not for the pool or cool summer fun, you are a secret vision modification that allows our kids to have some super summer fun without needing the extra large modifications!!

Finding Nemo, Finding an Unlikey Mentor

I bet you might be wondering why I am blogging about the movie Finding Nemo. Have you seen it? I LOVE it! Not just because it is super cute but because it is the perfect movie for parents of kids with vision impairments. I bet you didn't know that! 

Most of our parents start out like Marlin does in the beginning of the movie. Marlin is happy, excited about the babies and life is good. Suddenly his world is turned upside down when unexpected events change the course of his parenthood (sound familiar?). He loves his precious Nemo as any parent naturally does. However, pay attention to his parenting style. He goes from carefree and fun new parent to the hover craft---totally over protective and anxious about keeping Nemo completely safe. 

He finally takes Nemo to school and it is a bit awkward. The part I want you to pay attention to is when Marlin tells Nemo "he can't do it." Sometimes it is easy to lose track of the importance of empowering independence. There's a lot on your plate concerning school, IEPs, paraprofessionals, etc but you can't lose sight of empowering independence. 

There really are a ton of wonderful parallels and I want  you to stop and really ponder this journey that Marlin embarks on. He has to go on a journey and learn from unlikely sources about how to empower and believe in his son. 

Now I know you are thinking, "Robbin, I believe in my child..." I am sure you do BUT I see too many parents forget to empower their kids and accept their vision impairment. Remember from my most recent posts: Everything I learned, I learned because my parents made me do it!! Nemo also had to go on his journey and notice that there are definite parts without Marlin. Nemo had to learn that he can do it. He had to struggle and problem solve. It's okay for your kids to have struggle. Our kids learn by experience. That only comes when they can actually do something. I repeat, it's OKAY for our kids to struggle and problem solve. The last critical part is the 'aha' moment at the end when Marlin not only reconnects with his son but truly lets Nemo be independent. The result of that is that Nemo does something amazing! 

I am going to post some of my favorite scenes that I want you to pay close attention to. 

Finding Nemo Drop Off (This is where Marlin isn't empowering. He's acting out of panic protection. Notice how Nemo feels.)

Meeting Crush and learning about how to let your child struggle. (I LOVE this scene! Remember parents, "kill the motor". Let your kids struggle!!).

Last step: Empowerment in real life!!

Watch the movie. Take notes. Ponder. Think about one thing you can STOP doing for your kids and one thing they can START doing for themselves today. It's okay to make your child do chores (in fact, 20 minutes daily is what I recommend for all my students!). Thank you Marlin for being our unlikely mentor! Pop some popcorn and have a movie date :)

The Everyone Can Do It Finished Box

 This is the thing that truly everyone can do! It's a portable finished box (and if I don't say so myself, it's truly GENIUS!). Thank you super awesome teacher, Mary Quinn, for letting me blog about her super fab idea.

First and foremost, you do know what a finished box (or all done box) is, right?? If not, stop reading this post and go through my labels and find all the posts about calendar box systems and finished boxes. It's a must prerequisite to this post.  Now that you are familiar (and excited) about using finished boxes, let me introduce (drum roll please...) the PORTABLE FINISHED BOX.  This sweet little collapsible tote is otherwise known as a fabric drawer and is great for being the finished box on the go. The average price runs about $5.99 to $9.99 and can be purchased at any Target or Walmart store. These sweet on the go finished boxes are perfect for when you are out of desk space, traveling from classroom to classroom or out and about in the community. They fold right down and pop back to life easily and pretty sturdy, too. They come in two different sizes, a small one and a large. Mary, being the talented teacher for kiddo with MIVI/DB that she is, took it up a notch and decorated them based on season. This way there is a "theme" to each one. Now a note of caution about decorating here. Decorating is a great idea BUT be cautious about the child. If you are just introducing these, ask yourself the following questions: are they visually distracting? does my child/student have a concrete understanding of what a finished box is? Am I sending out too many clues--should they put the decorations together or use the actual finished box? Don't get lost in making them "cute". They have a purpose and that purpose must remain clear to the student.

 Another thing I thought about is consider the visual needs of the student. Should you make the bottom of the basket black so that there is contrast? Highlight the top rim so it highlights where to put things? There is no universal answer here. It all depends on the visual needs of your student. Same thing goes for which size to use. You may find yourself using both especially if you are a busy family and you want to use these out in the community, playgroup, church, etc. You may need both sizes. Keep one in the car so that you always have a finished box no matter what the situation.

 Notice the handle? You could also make a little velcro rope or chain so that this lightweight box can hang from a chair or on a stander, etc. I saw a para attach a plastic finished box to a chair and thought it was brilliant.

Now after reading this and seeing these pictures you have no excuse for not using a finished box everywhere you go. Your main dilemma now is figuring out what color to buy!

Babies of Blind Moms

I had to do another post today. I was reading the yahoo newsfeed and came across this interesting article. Its title, Babies of Blind Moms Excel in Vision Tests, caught my attention in a nano second.

The article finds that "Babies born to blind mothers have better visual attention and memory than their counterparts with seeing parents, new research suggests.". Now I find this article truly interesting for a few personal reasons. If you have been following me over the years you will know that I was raised by a single mom who is totally blind (and was blind before I was born). I have said for years that her blindness really didn't affect me the way most sighted people would suspect. In fact, I can't remember more than a handful of times that her blindness truly did impact me in a negative way. Sure, we didn't have a car so I didn't learn how to really drive until I was in my 20s. But I grew up in a city and took a city bus. So did all my friends so that didn't really matter.

My mom and I had our own intimate communication. We understood each other very well. We laughed at a lot of things along the way. Thankfully my mom has a pretty good sense of humor. There are fond memories I have of her "blindness moments"...like the time she tried to cut her own hair or yelled at me so long that she didn't hear me actually do the chore she was initially yelling at me to do. My favorite moment was when I was a kid and we were walking down the street. I had been laughing and teasing her about never being able to "catch me" with her cane. She hadn't been quite able to really get me with her cane and I was quite proud of it. Well one day my mom had her day in the sun. She patiently waited for her cocky little girl to get caught up in her own joke and then WHAM! She got me! Right in the calf!! I fell down, pride wounded, wailing about the injustice that had befallen me. And my mom just kept on walking.....with a proud grin across her face. Ha ha, I am laughing out loud right now as I type these fun memories.

My point is that I know there are some parents out there that wonder how their child with a vision impairment is going to make it especially if their child is totally blind. Well, I can tell you one thing. My mom and I were totally broke and on our own on the southside of Chicago. We had good friends, a sense of humor, independence and an intimate bond that went well beyond what vision allows a person to see. Your child will make it. The key to success is simple. It's quality of life. Our kids gain a great quality of life by having developed independent living skills, mobility (YES, USE THE CANE), social skills then the academics. Our kids learn by experience so we have to let them "fall down and learn how to pick themselves up". They can't have you slaying their dragons forever. And when I say independent living skills, I mean real independent living skills. You have to have the same kind of expectations for your kiddo with the vision impairment that you would for any other child. Adjust your expectations were it is necessary (for kids with multiple impairments) but empower them to get to their highest potential.  You ask any successful person with any kind of disability why they are so independent and they will tell you the same kind of answer: "My parents didn't treat me any different. My parents had the same expectations for me as they did my typical siblings. My parents made me do it." Yes, teachers do help, more services, grand IEPs are all tools but I will tell you over and over the key to a great life for a child with a vision impairment is parental support (not parental enabling). Think empowerment! Just say "Yes I can". Fake it 'til you make it! The white cane is your friend! I can keep the sayings going all day long....

 Getting back to my point.....The article goes on to say that "One of the most striking and endearing findings in this paper is that the babies of blind mothers significantly increased their attention-getting vocalizations to the mother over and above that shown by babies of sighted parents," Metlzoff said. "They crave maternal social attention and switch modalities and produce auditory events that will get the mom’s attention. Brilliant!" Can I get an amen to that!?

Read the article. Here's the link: http://news.yahoo.com/babies-blind-moms-excel-vision-tests-232057017.html.

PS-One of these days I will post some pics of my mom and me from back in the day :) Keep reading!

Conference time!

Hi friends,
I am excited to announce that I will be back at the Perkins 30th Annual Early Connections conference April 27, 2013 at Perkins School for the Blind.  This annual conference is for kiddos birth to 7 (with childcare!).

 Here's the link:

http://www.perkins.org/news-events/news/early-connections-conference.html.

You can get all the information about attending the conference from this link or you can go to perkins.org for more information. I will be presenting three different times (you will be sick of me by the end of the day, lol!) I will be presenting on building your social skills toolbox, a professional development group on social skills and a panel discussion with  my students and their parents called "Everything I Learned, I Learned Because My Parents Made Me Do It". It's gonna address how parents can successfully empower your kids to be awesome. I think it is going to be a fun day. I look forward to it. Plus I am happy to once again present with my fabulous students. Come and say hi if you are going to be there. I would love to meet you :)

I hope you can make it!

In related early childhood news, have you been on Wonderbaby.org earned Parent's Choice Foundation Seal of Approval! Way to go to our friends at Wonderbaby! In need of more resources and community friends like us, check out Wonderbaby. You will see me there, too!

Easter Projects

Happy Easter friends! I have a few ideas for this fun spring holiday. I have a couple on Easter eggs that you might like. A lot of people typically do the audible Easter eggs. It's a very popular way to have an Easter egg hunt. Make sure you do a good pre-teach with your kiddo (6-8 minutes long) and describe important landmarks and the boundaries of the area. Remember, you want to give meaningful information about the area. It's a good idea for them to have a mobility plan so that when all the kids are running around, your child has a base plan of attack.

I wanted to find some different kinds of crafts this year for Easter project. In my opinion Easter is one of the more difficult craft holidays because everything is so tiny and usually fragile. I found one fun idea in Family Fun for making a felted egg:

And then when I was Pinteresting I found this rad idea using regular eggs and glow sticks (both are a dollar at Dollar Tree right now!) Turn down the lights and this could get seriously fun (just remember to think about mobility as well---no large dark objects for our kids to bump into). I also thought this was a good idea for our kiddos who are MIVI---a few of these might be really fun to put in a large cake pan and then on their tray of a wheelchair. You could even add some beads or jingle bells inside (seal the egg with a bit of tape) so that our kids can shake them and have some more fun. 

And of course I had to find a fun cooking project!! Look at these! They are Easter s'mores!!! I can't stop using the exclamation points because I am SO excited about these!! These are the perfect cooking snack for preschool through teens. It's an simple 3 step sequence so it's also hit for our MIVI kids too! You can even add the vocational step by packaging them and putting on a label like the ones in this picture. Wait, there's more!! I know you are probably just as excited as I am right now until you think to yourself: "There's no way I can pull this off by Easter!" Do not despair my friends! This is also a fantastic spring project to do! Peeps will be going to clearance by Monday and you can turn this into a fab spring project--yay!! All you need for this project are: Peeps (they even make yellow ones for our CVI friends!), graham crackers and miniature (wrapped) Hershey's chocolates. Get some labels and snack sized plastic bags and you are in business!

Happy Easter everyone!

So many calendar boxes choices and only a DOLLAR!

I was strolling through one of my favorite stores today, Dollar Tree, and looked at their entire back wall with a big smile: it's a wall of calendar boxes and they are only a DOLLAR each!! 

Side note: do you shop at the one and only Dollar Tree? So many wonderful things for us and it's always just a dollar (shiny red wrapping paper, Easter eggs for cause and effect play, calendar boxes, black sharpies, curly red shiny ribbons...so many projects that this side note could easily turn into another new post!)

There are six rows in this picture. I'm gonna give you some ideas, row by row, starting from the top.
Row 1: The red baskets on top of the yellow--excellent for calendar boxes that go side by side and fit on a shelf (plus they are in the perfect colors!). The upside down orange, blue and green ones are great for finished boxes. 
Row 2: The narrow baskets (probably commonly used for utensils) are also nice side by side calendar boxes (these were the ones I had in my classroom). The blue, green and red ones are also nice ones too!
Row 3: The blue and green ones are great for organization. The last one on the far right (blue ones) are all stars.
Row 4: My favorite row!! There are so many great ones on this shelf!! The pink ones are perfect because you can tie a finished basket to a wheel chair (saw that great idea at a school). This way the tied on finished basket stays with the chair. If the student has a severe impairment, just pulling (or touching) the rope to the finished basket could keep the constant contact. I hope my description makes sense! Lastly, the yellow boxes--so bright and wonderful and perfect!! CVI!
Row 5: The larger green and red ones are nice finished boxes that sit nicely on a work table. They might be too big for a tray on a wheelchair. 
Row 6: Lots of baskets, handled baskets and buckets! These are nice for toys at home. 

I know, my faithful readers, that you are not just thinking that calendar box systems only happen at school. Look at all the possibilities!! Make sure you have a calendar box system at HOME! You can make SO many things happen at home and school. Don't stress out if you are thinking "I can't do a whole calendar box system at home!!". How about just starting with a simple finished box? Calendar box systems teach anticipation, time concepts, language, literacy---I could go on and on! If you can get a finished box going successfully but still can't get to a whole system, go to Now and Finished or Now, Next and Finished. Read up on all the posts with lots of great information for more information. 

Do it at home: Start using a finished box in your easiest, lowest stress routine at home.